It’s finally blueberry season in Michigan! I love going blueberry picking and stocking up on fresh blueberries to use throughout the winter. Plus, because he loves them so much, blueberries are the one fruit Mike will pick without too much complaint. The blueberries in these muffins aren’t fresh-picked, but they are straight from the farmer’s market. There’s nothing like fresh blueberries to make blueberry muffins extra wonderful. (Or so my husband tells me. I don’t actually like blueberry muffins, but he LOVES them. Emphasis on loves.)

I already have a great blueberry muffin recipe on the blog, but I figure there’s always room for more. I tried to get Mike to pick which he liked best between this one and our old favorite, but he said they were both too good and he couldn’t choose. This recipe uses a quick homemade blueberry jam to spread blueberry flavor through the whole muffin, and they bake up big and beautiful, like bakery style muffins. The lemon sugar on top adds the perfect amount of flavor and crunch, and I caught myself stealing crunchy lemon sugar crumbs off the top of the muffins once they were baked. These muffins are a definite favorite in our house. I’ve already made them twice and I’m sure I’ll be making them again before blueberry season is over!

Directions:

For the topping:
Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

For the muffins:
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.) Gently stir in blueberries.

Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter, pushing it below the surface. Using a chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into the batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 more minutes before serving.

[...] version with lots of blueberries, and a nice crunchy top. I’ve tried many variations, and I found this recipe included all the elements that to me make the “perfect” blueberry muffin. The trick for [...]